Scirpus schoenoides Retzius, Observ. Bot. 5: 14. 1788; Fimbristylis kagiensis Hayata.

Perennials. Rhizomes very short. Culms tufted, 5-40 cm tall, slender, slightly compressed, smooth, striate, with leaves at base. Leaves shorter than culm; leaf blade 0.5-1 mm wide, glabrous, margins often involute and apical part ciliate. Involucral bracts absent or 1 or 2, linear, to 2.5 cm. Inflorescence a reduced anthela, with only 1 or 2(or 3) spikelets. Spikelets sessile or stipitate, broadly ovoid, ovoid, or oblong-ovoid, 5-12(-16) × 3-4 mm, many flowered. Glumes densely arranged, yellowish white with short brown lines, broadly ovate, membranous, abaxially with many veins but not keeled, apex rounded and not mucronate or sometimes midvein excurrent into a ca. 3 mm mucro. Stamens 3; anthers linear. Style long, compressed, basally inflated, apical half ciliate; stigmas 2. Nutlet yellowish white, globose-obovoid to subglobose, ca. 1.5 mm (including short stipe), biconvex, with hexagonal reticulation. Fl. Aug-Sep, fr. Oct-Nov.

Wet places along streams, ditches, roads, paddy fields; 300-800 m. Fujian, Guangdong, Guangxi, Hainan, Jiangxi, Taiwan, S Yunnan, S Zhejiang [Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Nepal, Pakistan, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Vietnam; tropical Africa, N Australia].